Chapter 2
Figure 6 | Major host countries of refugees | end-2017 to end-2018
Turkey
Pakistan
Uganda
Sudan
Germany
Islamic Rep. of Iran
Lebanon
Bangladesh
Ethiopia
Jordan
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
Refugee population (millions)
As in 2017, CAR remained the country of origin of the
eighth largest refugee population. Violence continued
to force people to flee, with refugee numbers
increasing from 545,500 to 590,900 during 2018.
Virtually all CAR refugees found asylum in
neighbouring countries. Cameroon hosted about half
with 274,700 at the end of 2018, followed by DRC
(172,000), Chad (102,100), Congo (24,700) and
Sudan (7,000).
Eritrea remained the ninth largest country of origin
with 507,300 refugees at the end of 2018, an increase
from end-2017 when this population stood at 486,200.
Most Eritrean refugees (57 per cent) were hosted by
Ethiopia (174,000) and Sudan (114,500), but many also
found protection farther away, such as in Germany
(55,300), Switzerland (34,100), Sweden (27,700),
Norway (15,200), the Netherlands (14,900), Israel
(14,500) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) (13,000).
The number of refugees from Burundi, the tenth
largest refugee-producing country, decreased during
2018 from 439,300 at the start of the year to 387,900
at the end. The decrease was mainly due to returns
(45,500) and as a result of verification exercises that
often reflect spontaneous departures. Nearly all of
these refugees (98 per cent) were located in
unhcr > Global trends 2018
3.5
end-2018
4.0
end-2017
countries in the region, with Tanzania hosting
221,400 Burundian refugees, followed by
Rwanda (68,300), DRC (43,000), Uganda (32,500),
Kenya (4,900) and Zambia (4,500).
Other major countries or territories of origin for
refugees in 2018 were Iraq (372,300), Viet Nam
(334,500),19 Nigeria (276,900), Rwanda (247,500),
China (212,100), Mali (158,300), Colombia (138,600),
Pakistan (132,300), the Islamic Republic of Iran
(130,000) and Sri Lanka (114,000).
By country of asylum
Developing regions continued to shoulder a
disproportionately large responsibility for hosting
refugees. The Least Developed Countries,20 such as
Bangladesh, Chad, DRC, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South
Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Yemen, hosted
6.7 million refugees, 33 per cent of the global total,
while being home to 13 per cent of the world
population and accounting for a combined
19 Nearly all Vietnamese refugees are hosted by China and are
considered to be well integrated into Chinese society.
20 See: unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/ for a list of Least
Developed Countries.
17